I had the complimentary 5K service last week with tire rotation. Right after I got my car back it pulled slightly to the right while driving so I came back to the dealer to diagnose. They swapped my two front tires to see if it's a "tire radial pull" problem. They said they had a test drive and found that it was not tire radial pull but the steering wheel is not straight, so they performed a full alignment (for free, they said Lexus has provisions for adjustments in the first 12k miles). The car seems to be ok for now, but I think it's still strange because it was perfectly fine before the tire rotation. What do you think? Anyone had problem with alignment after tire rotation before?

 

i had the same problem with my RAV4 EV after the first 5,000 mile service.
and like yours, the wheel alignment was done for free.
although i have to go back the next day, which was as waste of time.

the explanation i got from the service advisor was uneven wear of the tires ( back and front) which cause the steering wheel to be off center AFTER the tire rotation.
the RAV4 EV is very Torquey, you can do a burn out even at 30mph when on Sport mode.
that's what he said.

This was a first me as well, i've owned a number of vehicles and NONE of them needed wheel alignment after tire rotation.

 

If tires come from different batch's one can have slightly more friction than one on the other side. Since I replaced my Michelin's with the same OEM tires, when I rotate back to front I get the same thing. When I rotate back the pull goes away. Might not be the case with your car, it could actually be a bit out of alignment but there's a good chance if it's a very small drift it could be the tire. Cars like Lexus can be a little more sensitive and notice the variance more than other cars. If it's the tire there's really nothing practical to do but get used to it, doesn't mean it's defective in any way.

 

I agree with Cruiter.

My previous car was a 2011 RAV4. When I bought the RX, I too, thought the car might need a wheel alignment since it kept pulling to the right very slightly. Note that this was barely a month after the purchase. When I went to the dealership, they had their chief test driver drive come out and have me sit along with him.

He drove the car and performed some tests without holding the steering wheel for a couple of seconds on multiple times while I watched the rear view mirrors for drifting. It was very minimal. He stated the RX is fine and it is normal. He stated that the RX has electronic steering, which is very sensitive to road conditions compared to the RAV4. He also stated that on any road, if you drive on the right lane, any car will drift to the right if you dont hold the steering wheel for a long time, and vice versa. He also mentioned that an RX with a wheel alignment problem will drift immediately as soon as the hands were free and most drivers would have either right or left arm pain.

His assumption was that I haven't gotten used to the RX yet since the RAV4's steering is less sensitive and more rugged. He said I had a heavy hand placement on the steering wheel.

 

Uneven tire pressure up front will cause a car to drift.

 

Hi - maybe related but every time I have had my front tyres replaced I have had to get the tracking reset to correct pulling/misaligned steering wheel....this has happened 4 times on 2 RX450h.